Naval Bajaj was re-elected President of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) Thursday June 27 at the Chamber’s Annual General Meeting.

Six directors were also elected to the new board of the Chamber. These include three directors from the outgoing board – Naval Bajaj, Dharma P. Jain who have been re-elected for a two-year term, and Tony Chawla, who was a nominated director in the previous board.

Three new directors elected are Brij Sharma, Pathik Baxi and Rajni Tekriwal. All of them have been elected for a two-year term. Jagdish Bajaj, Mukesh Bhardwaj and Aviral Goel are the other elected directors on the board who were elected last year and are in the middle of their two-year term.

Speaking about his priorities, Naval Bajaj emphasized that the board would continue to focus on promoting business and trade. He said the main focus areas for his second year as the Chamber’s 25th President would be:

• Focus on creating business opportunities for Canadian businesses within Canada, in India and globally
• Enhance the Chamber’s infrastructure with a view to meet future needs
• Rolling out the National Model to give true character to the Chamber’s coast-to-coast presence
• Overhauling the Governance structure to enable growth

“We are in a transition phase. From being a diaspora organization, we are transforming into a business organization. This transition has its challenges and we are gearing up the Chamber to meet these challenges by ushering in structural changes.”

The President said that while the Chamber is without doubt the largest Indian Diaspora organization in Canada, and it would continue to build upon this. “We are also the largest organization of small businesses owned by Canadians of Indian origin, and going forward, we will be focussing on creating opportunities for them within Canada, in North America, in India and globally,” Bajaj said.

“Our aim is to invest in physical infrastructure and human resources to meet our growing needs,” Bajaj said.

Thanking the outgoing board, President Naval Bajaj, said, “The commitment and the dedication of the 2012-13 board was the key to our success. For the first time in several years, we have been able to satisfactorily address the four key issues that the general body has consistently raised over the past many years.”

These issues are:

• Substantive work on the Canada-India trade relations
• Creating a Governance structure
• Boosting the council operations
• Optimal utilization of the building fund

Collectively as well as individually, the General Body lauded the tangible achievements of the board on all these four issues.

ICCC President announced the formation of a special task force to implement a transparent and robust Governance structure for the Chamber. The special task force includes members of the previous boards and advisory board members. They include: Ajit Khanna, Asha Luthra, Harjit S. Kalsi, Hari Panday, Imtiaz Seyid, Pradeep Sood, Rakesh Goenka, Satish Thakkar, and Surjit Babra. The President and the Corporate Secretary will also be members of this task force. The incoming board may expand the task force in the future.

The special task force will work on modifying the Chamber’s bylaws within the next three months. The incoming board has proposed a special AGM to pass the new bylaws in fall of 2013.

Hari Panday, Past President and chair of Governance committee, presented a proposal on a national council for the Chamber which envisages a concrete role for the Chamber’s existing and future councils.

Amidst a round of resounding applause, the President also announced the acquisition of a 6,000 square feet building in East Mall, in Toronto’s west end (Elignton and 427). A communication on this acquisition will be sent to ICCC members early next week, inviting members to suggest a name for the new headquarters of our 36-year-old institution. The Chamber’s office will also move from its existing location at Yonge and Sheppard to the new premises mid-summer.

More than a hundred members participated in the Chamber’s annual general meeting, including several past presidents and former board members. Aditya Jha chaired the meeting, and Rakesh Goenka as the returning officer announced the new directors.

D. P. Jain, Vice President and Director, Finance, submitted the financial statement for 2012-13.

A noteworthy aspect of the annual general meeting was the tangible support to the President’s leadership.